There are many hacks happening and it happen to some close friends I know in person. Writing this article to secure your Facebook account from hacks. This article doesn’t limit to Facebook but also to other social media platforms (by concept), importantly to your bank accounts. Big companies offers another way of authenticating the login aside from just entering your user and password. It’s FREE. Some of these are mandatory and already enabled for newer accounts but may not be enabled yet in older accounts so you have to do it one time.
2FA or Two Factor Authentication
Basic concept is that, aside from the login page where you enter your username and password, there is a 2nd validation sent through sms (short text messages), or a call or a code (numbers) generated via app through your mobile. It’s only during “accepting” these codes allows a user to proceed getting inside his/her account.
How to set it up?
Let’s use Facebook as an example as it is most used social media platform. The concept is the same and applicable to other big techs and banks. The following screen may not be exactly same as your current screens depending on the versions.
1- Look for the “Settings”.
2- In the settings menu, look for “Password and Security”.
3- You have everything you need to set in this screen.
You may dive in from the 3rd screen above and check your recommended settings if already set like the one below.
Your password is OK – you have set the recommended complexity like the 8 alphanumeric
Two-Factor is ON – second login credential as explained above
Login Alerts are ON – if another device is attempting to login into your account, you will be notified
I won’t bored you with a lot of screenshots. Everything you need to explore is in this screen/page and are self-explanatory. Go ahead and start setting up those.
Caution!!
Note these precautions when you need to switch phone into new one, you really need these credentials to login your Facebook account into the new device, otherwise you won’t be able to do so.
Email – this is where Facebook sends initial validation if you are really the owner of the account. Make sure you have access to this email.
SMS – make sure that you still have the number used in the settings. When you login into new device, it sends verification code to this number.
Google Authenticator App – (if you use this option) make sure you have downloaded/setup your Google Authenticator before setting up your Facebook account into new device. Like SMS, a verification code will be generated by the App which lets you proceed with setting up your account into the new device.
(Check this article for enabling 2FA for Google and Microsoft email and other services)
Knowing that you have already setup the above 2FA authentication, your account will be difficult to hack. The hacker maybe able to crack your password remotely but not the code sent into your device which currently in your hand. When someone ask for the code either in the SMS or Authenticator App, don’t provide it, it is for your eyes only!
Disclaimer
This article is not responsible if you have missed the configuration outlined above nor if you forget values you’ve entered and your account can no longer be recovered.
Check out also our article regarding phishing.
